Expensive fraud prevention fee

When you apply for a US Visa you have to pay a fee of $131 per applicant. Depending on type of visa you might also have to pay a $500 fraud prevention fee. I paid all this in advance and went happy to the US embassy this morning. It was pretty cold so standing in line outside for an hour with a one year old kid was not fun. When we reach the door to the security checkpoint the guard apologizes for not seeing we had a kid with us. If he'd known he'd let as go in before everybody else. That was the first lesson learned today.

Second lesson learned was that I should read all instructions carefully... The $500 fee should not be paid in advance. It should be paid at the embassy. And the extra money paid in advance is lost. I don't think that had anything to do with it but we had a really short wait inside for our visa interview. At least we overtook a couple of people there...

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2008
  Really, you had to pay the $500 fee twice?!

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2008
  In practice yes... I will not buy any lottery tickets today.